28 JANUARY 1938, Page 36

MOTORING

The German Motor Roads and Ours It is probably too much to hope that the recent inspection by the Minister of Transport of the German special motor- roads will lead to any memorable step on the part of the Government towards a radical improvement of our own makeshift highway-system—nor, perhaps, is it reasonable. We have committed ourselves to a laborious programme of road-improvements on the fashionable five-year plan (a phrase that must be as comfortable to the rulers of Europe as the Aegean Sea was to the schoolboy—" it " might be there, " it " might be done in five years) and although nothing like the promised sum has been or is being spent on it the mere fact that Mr. Burgin declares himself, in warm terms, to be much impressed with the excellence of the German roads is an unlikely augury of immediate action.